Minecraft fans have been expecting a major update to the game since 2017. But the update has proved “too technically demanding,” Microsoft said Monday, leading the company to cancel production.
The update, called Super Duper Graphics Pack, was expected to bring more with lighting effects like shadows and fog, new motion for some game elements like leaves, and new textures for characters. Microsoft unveiled the “ambitious” update at the massive E3 video game conference in 2017, but on Monday conceded that the update “proved too technically demanding to implement as planned.”
“We aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices,” developer Mojang said in a company blog post. “For this reason, we’re stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look.”
Minecraft has come a long way since its introduction a decade ago. It remains one of the top paid mobile games in Apple’sApp Store and the Google Play Store, while Minecraft: Education Edition has become a popular way to teach kids things like computer coding, engineering, architecture, urban planning and math.
It’s also been used to help kids with autism engage in school and build healthy social lives.
The pack would have given the game realistic textures, lighting effects and all-round better graphics.
The pack has proved “too technically demanding” so has been ditched.
‘Disappointing’
The plan to make Minecraft look more realistic was unveiled in 2017 at the E3 games show. The ambitious plan was to make a downloadable add-on that all but did away with the basic, blocky look of the massively popular game.
In 2017, Mojang said its work also would produce an add-on for the Xbox version of Minecraft that let the game run at a resolution of 4K on the console.
Originally the Super Duper add-on was due to appear in autumn 2017 but the release date was pushed back to 2018 before being cancelled altogether in 2019.
The technical demands of the update have proved too much, it said in a short apology.
It added: “We realise this is disappointing to some of you – there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio – but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices.”
Mojang added that it was not entirely finished with improving the look of Minecraft on different game-playing gadgets and said it would share more information about this work soon.
In his August 3 Minecraft video, YouTube star Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg was gearing up to take on an epic mob boss when he got extremely lucky with his item drops.
PewDiePie’s recent Minecraft videos have been blowing up on YouTube, as almost every single video in the series has gone on the trending page on the platform.
On August 1, The YouTube star assembled an army of 96 million pigs to help him take on a notorious boss called ‘Wither’. But in order to summon the enemy, he needed to collect several extremely rare items – which he managed to do during his August 3 video.
What is a Wither?
A Wither is a floating undead boss mob that attacks players with skulls that explode. He is the only hostile boss that can be created by players in the game currently.
Making the enemy, requires 4 blocks of soul sand that have to be arranged in a T shape, as well as three ‘Wither Skulls’ that are placed side by side on the top three blocks. However, obtaining Wither Skulls is pretty hard as they are a rare drop.
MICROSOFT / MOJANGThe three headed boss is what PewDiePie is working towards.
Wither Skulls can be found in the Nether after killing a Wither Skeleton. However the drop rate for them is as low as 2.5%, but can go up to 5.5% depending on buffs. The low drop-rates can make it extremely difficult to create the enemy.
In his August 2 video, PewDiePie managed to get the first skull from his first skeleton spawn. “Whoa! Whoa, I’m so lucky dude. Already!” he shouted with glee.
As if he wasn’t already lucky enough, a skeleton dropped another rare item immediately after the first one. “Oh my god. Dude. Looting three, baby!” the YouTuber beamed with excitement.
YOUTUBE: PEWDIEPIE / MOJANGPewDiePie has incredible luck.
PewDiePie then gets three more Wither Skulls
PewDiePie then ended up getting the third skull after being rushed by two Wither Skeletons at once in a frantic battle.
“AHHHHH!” he screamed as he hacked away at the enemies until they died, leaving behind the item. “YESSSS!”
Then to top it all off, the Swedish YouTuber even ended up getting a fourth one. “Oh. My. God.” he breathed in total disbelief when he realized how lucky he was.
(Timestamp of 00:01:07 for mobile viewers.)
The Swede’s battle with the Wither and his army of 96 million pigs is gearing up to be an epic showdown.
What’s new in the latest Minecraft 1.14 Java update and Minecraft 1.12.0 Bedrock update.
Just how big is Minecraft? In early 2019 it passed 176 million copies sold, which puts it in a tussle with Tetris as the best-selling game of all time. Today there are two versions of Minecraft still being updated, each with millions of players: Minecraft Java, the original, and Minecraft Bedrock, the modern version built to run across Windows, mobile, and consoles. Minecraft Bedrock is still playing catch-up with Java’s features, but it’s getting there. Meanwhile, every new Minecraft Java update brings new things to Minecraft.
This is our running catalog of what’s new in both versions of Minecraft. On this page, we have the latest Minecraft Java update, while on page two we’ve collected Minecraft Bedrock’s latest patch notes.
Looking through the Minecraft update 1.14.4 patch notes, minor adjustments and a variety of fixes dot the landscape. Adjustments to villager behavior, the new sieges, and some multiplayer settings changes are the highlights.
MINECRAFT JAVA UPDATE: 1.14.4 PATCH NOTES
For access to the full patch notes including bugfixes, check here.
Fixed bugs.
Performance improvements.
Suspicious stew made from poppies now gives you night vision instead of speed.
Added /debug report for getting more detailed information.
Fixed a memory leak.
Removed camera pivot offset in first-person.
Improved chunk loading when traveling at high speed.
Fixed incorrect Pillager texture.
/reload and /forceload are now available to gamemasters.
function-permission-level is a new setting in server.properties that controls which commands functions have access to.
Villagers now stock more items.
Villagers will now remember their gossip after becoming a Zombie Villager .
Improved performance of Villager pathfinding.
Villagers can now work without also restocking at the same time.
Gossip about players who converted a zombie villager will now last longer.
The Player Activity button on the Realm screen has been removed.
Villagers now wait with restocking until they have trades that need restocking.
Village sieges no longer occur on mushroom islands.
Mobs will no longer try to pathfind their way through bamboo.
Pinged the human.
MINECRAFT JAVA UPDATE: 1.14.3 PATCH NOTES
Check here for the full patch notes, including bugfixes
Items can now be repaired by crafting them together again.
Reverted the enchanting system to how it was before 1.14.
Torches, lanterns and pressure plates can now be placed on glass panes and iron bars.
Lanterns can now be attached below iron bars and glass panes.
Saturation is no longer required for the “How did we get here?” advancement.
You can now turn off raids with ‘/gamerule disableRaids true’
Villagers that are panicking now have a bigger chance of spawning Iron Golems, assuming they can occasionally work and sleep
“Last slept” and “last worked” is now saved properly for Villagers
Farmers now spend more time farming when they are working
Farmers can now always give away food even if other villagers don’t need it
Improved performance
Fixed bugs
Patrol Changes:
MINECRAFT JAVA UPDATE: 1.14.2 PATCH NOTES
You can find the full patch notes, with bugfixes, over here.
All light will now be re-calculated the first time you open a world saved in a previous version
Errors encountered while loading regions now print more diagnostics to the log file
Fixed so parrots can spawn on grass blocks and not only on grass
Added server-side chunk count to debug screen
Modified raider spawning so they can only ever spawn in fully loaded chunks
Increased search radius for bell when starting a raid from 48 to 64 blocks
Fixed bugs
MINECRAFT JAVA VILLAGE & PILLAGE UPDATE: 1.14.0 PATCH NOTES
Minecraft – Village & Pillage – 1.14.0 patch notes
For the full listing, including technical changes and bug fixes, check here.
General Features Overview
Lots of accessibility improvements.
Added bamboo blocks into the game.
Added bamboo jungles in the world.
Added barrels.
Added the bell.
Added yummy sweet berries and sweet berry bushes to the game.
Added blast furnace.
Rewrote the book & quill editing to be more intuitive.
Added campfire.
Added cartography table.
Split cats and ocelots to their own creatures and updated cats with new features.
Added composter.
Added crossbows.
Added lots of new blocks.
Added lots of new decorative blocks.
Added fletching table.
Added new dyes and flowers.
Added some community suggestions.
Updated the credits list.
Added in-game buttons for reporting bugs or giving feedback.
Improvements to invisibility to allow it to correctly work in many cases where it didn’t but you’d expect it to.
Added grindstone functionality.
Added ‘Hero of the Village’ effect.
Added leather horse armor.
Added lantern.
Added lectern.
Added loom.
Existing special banner patterns can now be crafted into a new item that is not consumed when used, Banner Patterns.
Added a new “Globe” banner pattern and item.
We’re now using the new textures.
Added new noteblock sounds.
Added pandas.
Added foxes.
Added Illager patrols.
Added Pillagers.
Added Pillager outpost.
Added raids.
Added Ravager.
Added Wandering Trader.
Added scaffolding.
Rewrote the sign editing to be more intuitive.
Added smithing table.
Added smoker.
Added stonecutter.
Added suspicious stew.
Trading changes.
Villager changes.
Biome based architecture for villages.
Accessibility
There’s a new Accessibility menu which provides a useful place for all of our accessibility features to be toggled.
When the narrator is turned on, buttons will be narrated on focus.
Most screens allow tab and shift+tab navigation through buttons, edit boxes and other UI elements.
Most lists allow up/down arrow keys to navigate through them.
We’ve added a new option for turning up the background of all transparent text elements, which should help make them more readable for some people.
Bamboo
Can be found in Jungles and the two new biomes: bamboo jungle and bamboo jungle hills.
Can grow to a max height of 12 to 16 blocks.
When sprinkled with bone meal, bamboo will grow with one or two bamboo blocks on the top.
When struck with a sword, bamboo will instantly break.
Two bamboo can be crafted into a single stick.
Can be used as fuel, with four bamboo required to smelt a single item.
Bamboo can be placed into flower pots.
Bamboo can also be found in shipwrecks and jungle temples.
Barrels
Store things in them!
Rotate them!
Find them in villages!
Bells
Trade with certain villagers to obtain the bell
Use the bell to alert villagers of nearby danger
A villager will ring the bell to alert other villagers of an impending raid
Ringing bells reveals all nearby mobs that can appear in raids
Berries
Delicious!
Not very filling!
Plant your berries in the ground and look with your special eyes as they grow up into a strong, independent bush!
Berry Bush
Commonly found in taiga, taiga hills, and taiga mountains
Rarely found in snowy taiga and snowy taiga hills and snowy taiga mountains
You can stand inside them, but be careful, it will hurt to move
Has four stages of growth: sapling, no berries, some berries, full berries
Drops one or two berries in younger stage, then two or three in full growth stage
Supports bone meal!
Doesn’t support silk touch!
Biome-based Architecture for Villages
Villages have recieved an updated look, with several new themes
The theme depends on the biome the village is in, taking both climate and to available resources into consideration
Uses the new mysterious jigsaw block for generation
Adds new structure files, quite many actually
Blast Furnace
A new furnace upgrade that allows for smelting ores and melting metals faster than the traditional furnace
Can be crafted via three smooth stone, one furnace, and five iron ingots
Added to world gen in some villager buildings
Campfire
A decorative fireplace without fire spread
Cooks up to four foods, but slowly
Acts as a smoke signal you can see very (VERY!) far away when a hay bale is below (hint: think note blocks!)
Cosy light source
Can be lit/unlit
Cartography Table
New functional block that provides an easier and simpler way of cloning, extending, and locking of maps
New map functionality with cartography table
Map Locking: allows you to lock maps in the cartography table with a glass pane so that they can no longer be modified
Map Locking: allows you to lock maps in the cartography table with a glass pane so that they can no longer be modified
Fancy UI to more closely represent what the recipes actually do functionally
Crafted with two planks and two paper
Cat and Ocelot Split
Stray cats can be tamed
Tamed cats can give lovely (or less lovely) morning gifts to their owners
Ocelots can’t be tamed, but might start trusting you if you feed them with fish
Phantoms are terribly scared of cats – how convenient!
Cat collars can now be dyed
Added several new cat skins!
Community Suggestions
Leaves now have a small chances to drop sticks
Chorus fruit flowers now break when shot by an arrow
Dead bushes can now be used as furnace fuel
Rabbit stew and beetroot soup have been changed to a shapeless recipe
Creepers will now drop records when killed by Stray in addition to skeletons
Dispensers with shears in them will now shear sheep that have wool in front of them
TNT and TNT minecart explosions now have 100% drop rate
Composter
Instead of eating your veggies you can make fertilizer from it!
Crafted with 3 planks and 4 fences
Crossbows
“To charge the crossbow, hold down the “Use” button. Once the crossbow string has been pulled all the way back, let go. Your crossbow is now loaded and ready to shoot with a single click of the “Use” button.”
Shoots arrows with base power slightly stronger than the bow, but has less durability
Three unique enchantments
Fun, challenging advancements
New loading mechanics
Unique load animation
Enchantments
Three new enchantments for Crossbows.
Decorative Blocks
Changed all existing stone slabs to smooth stone slabs (same look, new name!)
Changed all existing signs to oak signs (same look, new name!)
Made smooth stone slabs craftable from smooth stone
Added spruce, birch, jungle, acacia and dark oak signs
You can now right click on signs with dyes to change the text colour
Added stone stairs and slabs
Added granite stairs, slabs and walls
Added polished granite stairs and slabs
Added diorite stairs, slabs and walls
Added polished diorite stairs and slabs
Added andesite stairs, slabs and walls
Added polished andesite stairs and slabs
Added sandstone walls
Added smooth red sandstone stairs and slabs
Added smooth quartz stairs and slabs
Added brick walls
Added stone brick walls
Added mossy stone brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added nether brick walls
Added end stone brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added prismarine walls
Added red sandstone walls
Added red nether brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added smooth sandstone stairs and slabs
Added mossy cobblestone stairs and slabs
Made smooth stone obtainable by smelting stone
Made smooth sandstone obtainable by smelting sandstone
Made smooth red sandstone obtainable by smelting red sandstone
Made smooth quartz obtainable by smelting quartz block
Changed the recipe of nether brick fence to four brick blocks and two brick items
Changed the recipe of signs to require all of the same wood type, not any wood type
Dyes
Separated bone meal, ink sac, cocoa beans, and lapis lazuli into their own dyes
Unified all dye names (red, yellow, and green dyes no longer have special names)
Added new recipes to obtain coloured stained glass and coloured carpet
Fletching Table
Crafted with four planks and two flint
Villagers use it as a work site
Flowers
Added cornflower, wither rose and lily of the valley
Be careful of the wither rose!
Foxes
Foxes come in two variants: red and snowy
Foxes are nocturnal
Foxes will hunt rabbits, chickens, and fish
Foxes are hunted by wolves and polar bears
Foxes are nimble and quick, so sneak up on them carefully!
Breed foxes with berries
If you breed two foxes, their offspring will trust you forever
Trusting foxes will defend you, but will still eat your chickens
Foxes like to eat any and every food item they find on the ground
You may find a fox exploring a nearby village at night
Grindstone
Moved inventory and crafting table repairing into the grindstone, this will be its new home
Has the ability to remove all non-curse enchantments from an item; for each enchant removed some XP is reimbursed
Hero of the Village
Hero of the Village effect causes the cost of trades with villagers to be reduced by a percentage and scales with level of the effect.
Hero of the Village additionally causes Villagers to occassionally toss items to you to thank you!
Horse Leather Armor
Added a new armour type for horses
Dye it in lots of different colours
Illager Patrols
Spawn in the world as a pack of five random illagers
Spawn in all variations of the Plains, Taiga, Deserts, Savanna
Scary-spooky new banner can be found a top the patrol leaders head
Lantern
The lantern is a new light source
The lantern can be placed either hanging under a block or on top of a block
It gives slightly more light than the torch
Lectern
Right-click an empty lectern to place book
Right-click a lectern with book to open
Current page is persistent and shared between all readers
Emits redstone pulses when page is changed
Use a comparator to get book reading progress
Loom
New and easier way of being able to apply patterns to banners, can still only apply six max patterns to a banner
Generic patterns now only require one dye in order to create patterns, instead of one to eight (depending on the pattern)
Special banner patterns (oxeye daisy, creeper skull, wither skeleton skull, enchanted golden apple) can now be crafted. These patterns don’t consume the pattern item when used in the loom
Old pattern recipes in the crafting table for apply patterns to banners have been removed
New Blocks
Added barrel
Added smoker
Added blast furnace
Added cartography table
Added fletching table
Added grindstone
Added lectern
Added smithing table
Added stonecutter
Added village bell
New Textures
Renovated the old textures of Minecraft and polished them for a new beginning
If you’re feeling nostalgic you can always enable the old “Programmer Art” textures in the resource pack menu
Noteblock
5 new Noteblock sounds have been added: Iron Xylophone, Cow Bell, Didgeridoo, Bit, and Banjo
1 previously existing, but unused, sound effect has now been made available: Pling
The new Noteblock sounds can be heard by using Iron Blocks, Soul Sand, Pumpkins, Emerald Blocks, Hay Blocks, or Glowstone
Pandas
Pandas come in different types and personalities!
Pandas love bamboo! They kinda like cake as well
Pandas can be bred, and the cubs can inherit traits through a special panda inheritance system
Pandas spawn naturally in the new bamboo forest biome
Pandas drop bamboo when killed.
Pillager
A new type of illager that, well, pillages!
Pillagers wield a new weapon, the crossbow!
Pillager Outpost
As if finding pillager patrols out in the wild wasn’t scary enough, keep an eye out during your explorations and you may just find one of their outposts
Can be found in any biome villages generates in
Takes advantage of the new mystery block, the jigsaw, for generation
Raids
If you find an illager wearing a banner on its head, be careful not to kill it!
If you do kill it, you might find yourself facing a ‘Bad Omen’
If you find yourself with a bad omen buff, be especially careful not to walk into a village
If you do walk into a village with it? Best of luck!
Ravager
A fearsome new foe who packs quite a wallop. Grab your sword and shield and prepare to get knocked around!
Rewrite of Book and Quill Editing
Movable cursor for free text editing
Selection support
Copy & paste
Keyboard and mouse handling
Improved page filling and line wrapping
Increased book length (100 pages)
Rewrite of Sign Editing
Movable cursor for free text editing
Selection support
Copy & paste
Scaffolding
Easily buildable
Easily destroyable
Easily climbable
Easily the best use of your Bamboo
Smithing Table
Crafted with 4 planks + 2 iron ingots
Villagers use it as a work site
Smoker
New furnace upgrade that allows for the smelting of foods faster than the traditional furnace
Can be crafted via four Logs, and one furnace
Added to world gen in some villager buildings
Stonecutter
New functional block that provides a simpler way to craft various stones (stairs, slabs, chiseled, and more)
Crafted with three stone + one iron ingot
Suspicious Stew
Found in buried ship treasure chests
Also craftable!
Whoever eats this stew will be imbued with an unknown effect for several seconds!
Whoever crafts the stew will know what effect they gave it
Trading Changes
Lots of new trades have been added
Villagers now level up in a new way
The trading UI is updated (WIP)
The trading prices now depend on your reputation and on demand
The villagers will restock up to two times per day (if they can work at their work station!)
Added visual trading; villagers will display the item they want to trade for your in-hand item
Villager Changes
Villagers and zombie villagers now have new fancy skins
Added mason profession
Cured zombie villagers retain their trades
Villagers now have a daily schedule. They will for example go to work and meet up at the village bell
Each villager will try to find their own bed and work station
Each profession has a specific block that works as a work station for them (e.g. lectern for the librarian and cauldron for the leatherworker)
Village detection is now based on beds, job sites, and meeting points instead of doors
Iron Golems will spawn when enough villagers meet
Wandering Trader
A mysterious trader that can be randomly found around
Provides various random trades from a variety of different biomes
Is escorted around by a few llama with some sweet new decorations! (Careful! They can be temperamental)
Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek poked fun at fellow streamer Tyler ‘Tyler1‘ Steinkamp’s height, after encountering a tiny zombie during his Minecraft playthrough.
As one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, shroud can usually be found showcasing his world-class FPS skills in games like PUBG, Apex Legends, and even Overwatch.
Yet, sometimes, the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional opts to try his hand at a less-challenging game like The Sims or, more recently, Minecraft. Of course, he can’t use his human aim-bot abilities to wow fans in those titles and instead has to find something else to entertain them with. That’s where his comedic side is on full show.
TWITCH:SHROUDShroud is usually stoic on-stream, but can pull out jokes.
During his August 3 stream, shroud had been playing some Minecraft VR with Hannah ‘Bnans’ Kennedy when the pair found themselves stuck in a cave and searching for a way out. With Bnans’ health running low, shroud tossed over a cooked porkchop in a bid to give her a boost.
Of course, immediately after she had done so, Bnans was set upon by a fast-moving baby zombie, who began whittling away her health. “You got Tyler1 behind you, you got Tyler 1,” called out shroud once he realized what was happening.
“I got him, I got him, come here Tyler,” the former CS:GO pro added, as he poked the tiny zombie to death with a sword. “Don’t fucking hit my girlfriend like that.”
Yet, it wasn’t just Tyler1 who caused disruption during the couples stream. In fact, shroud himself did damage to Bnans – completely by accident – with a hilarious outcome.
The Canadian had been gifting his girlfriend some armor and tools before he started dancing, clearly happy with his work. Yet, he left his sword equipped and he swung his arms in the air, the game decided to attack Bnans and take some health away.
Recognizing his mistake, shroud immediately ran and hit in a corner, going completely silent and looking pretty solemn – despite his viewers laughing about the whole exchange.
If the couple decide to keep up their Minecraft adventures moving forward, shroud might just need to be aware of friendly fire.
Who knows, he might even run into a spider that he can mock for being a Dr Disrespect look-a-like.
How do I upgrade champions in Teamfight Tactics? To win a match of League’s version of Auto Chess, you need to use all your resources and gold wisely to assemble the most effective lineup. But, while you might initially assume that ensuring you have a variety of champions in your team is the way to win, having multiple copies of the same character is a crucial way of sticking it to your seven real-world rivals.
Now that the Teamfight Tactics release date is here, you can finally get into Riot’s take on the autobattle genre without needing Honour Level Three to access the closed beta. Now that it’s out, you have the chance to see what all the fuss is about, and it’s heavily inspired by the original Dota Auto Chess mod from Drodo. So, if you’re in any way acquainted with that, you’ll know that upgrading champions in Teamfight Tactics is very important in securing victory.
If you know how to upgrade Dota Underlords heroes in Valve’s rival and official spin on the autobattler, you’ll probably know the basics of this system already. Combining duplicate heroes together upgrades them into a special soldier with a significantly buffed health pool and DPS (damage per second) capabilities. Since this is a very important part of turning the tables on your enemies and crafting TFT tactics, here’s how to upgrade champions in Teamfight Tactics.BEST PC GAMING HARDWARE DEALS TODAYLogitech G502 HERO High Performance Gaming Mouse
Autobattlers feature mechanics that can be tough for newcomers to get their head around, but this one certainly isn’t. At the beginning, each champion you choose has a 1-star rating. Then, once you have three of the same champion on the field of battle at once, they’ll automatically be upgraded to a 2-star character. You don’t need to do anything and the change is immediate.
However, your health-boostin’, damage-buffin’ journey does not end there. If you’ve managed to combine your way to a third 2-star hero, they will merge to form a fearsome 3-star one. This is the highest rank a champion can get to, so get ready to unleash them when they get to that point.
If you’re holding out to upgrade one Teamfight Tactics champion in particular, bear in mind that the shop with which you purchase them is affected by what your opponents are doing. In other words, if everyone else is working on one unit, it’s less likely they’ll appear in your shop. In that case, you might want to change tack and boost someone else, so you’re not wasting your time and money on undesirable shop re-rolls. If you have spare units lying around, make them useful and sell them for gold for further re-rolls and team strengthening.
In the end, it’s all about making sure you’re specialising – as that’s how to upgrade Teamfight Tactics champions, naturally – without neglecting the chance to have as many units as possible of tactically-sound class and origin combinations to form good TFT comps. Knowing your Teamfight Tactics recipes is important, but taking time to consider when and how to upgrade your champions can turn the tide of a match, so keep an eye on the opposition and do what they’re not doing to create a powerful squad to exploit their weaknesses.
